


Scorpius' nightmare.

by mihaelkn



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: Family Bonding, Family Feels, Hurt/Comfort, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-05
Updated: 2020-09-05
Packaged: 2021-03-06 17:42:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26302906
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mihaelkn/pseuds/mihaelkn
Summary: Small oneshot with a young Scorpius needing comfort from his Mother one stormy night.
Kudos: 9





	Scorpius' nightmare.

It isn’t always the obvious, the expected or the most typical things that scare us and cause us pain. 

It isn’t always the thunder storms, the monsters under the bed, the angry parents or the fear of loneliness. 

Those things scare in known, anticipated, written and read ways that anyone can describe and recount, when your heart beats so fast it deafens within the inside of your skull and your skin crawls with a trailing fire of sweat and unease, everyone has experienced that, and everyone can tell you what it feels like. 

But it isn’t always like that. Sometimes when terror stalks us, lingers in and around our minds, it has no face, no hands, no bony fingers to pry and grasp, no pointed teeth to rip and sever. Sometimes it is faceless, nameless, a deep and bottomless thing that has no end and no beginning, only a very determined purpose. 

To creep into the most peaceful parts of vulnerable thoughts and fester and decay with an excruciating torment that will always ends in – 

“Mum!!!!!” 

Silence. Not a single sound responds to the young boy as he sits upright in his bed, dark, alone, no soft flicker of a candle, no gentle creak from a tree outside, not even the booming echo of his own heavy heartbeat in his ears. Only a suffocating, humiliating silence is what is there to greet him from what was definitely, a nightmare. 

It continues, the silence, for a moment, two moments, three moments, and just one more to ensure the young boy feels utterly ridiculous within this torment before a pitter patter of small feet shoo it away with their padding towards his room. 

“Young Malfoy?” A small voice enquires from outside his room and pale fleshy fingers curl around his door to ease it open. 

“N-Nothing!” He stutters frantically, biting at his lip in immediate frustration at how illogical his reply was. 

The elf awkwardly hovers.

“Does the young Malfoy require anything?” Eyes pin themselves shut, causing cold tears to bubble over his lashes and roll to his cheeks and a very determined shake of his head is given. Somehow his servant knows. “G-Goodnight Young Malfoy.” 

And again he is alone. 

Again, there is no sound. No creak of floorboards or rapid huffs of his breath, all that he can be aware of now is the chilled sweat prickling his arms and neck, tiny stabbing reminders of how silly and childish he is being.

It is up to him then. It’s his job to break the silence and chase the silent fear away.

Resting back against the pillows behind him, he causes his sheets to rustle and shatter some of that fear, his small hands gripping at the sheets and pulling them up under his chin. 

Good enough.

Too young for a wand and too late in the night for any candles to still be burning, he is left in complete darkness to figure out what mess was left in his mind after… 

What even was it? 

Because, he had had nightmares before, horrible things that left him waking with headaches and sorrow, dreams where he could see things happening, fearful creatures wanting to eat him or, dreams of being lost without Mother or Father, frightened and alone, but this, this was nothing like those. Because this dream had been …

“Nothing …” A small whisper to chase more silence away.

There had been nothing to see, nothing to hear, nothing to smell, taste or touch in this dream. 

It had been dark, silent, not fast like most fear was, but slow, so slow. 

He’d been stuck in a never ending darkness that had been closing in and expanding all at once, gripping him tight and letting him fall at the same time. 

“How … How can I be scared of … nothing?” The question is, of course, left unanswered in his silent room. 

It had been minutes now, since his startling awakening, and enough time to shake off some of the dream’s impact, for, he is a brave boy. 

Not that someone would think of it by looking at him, or even that someone who knew well him would regard it as one of his most striking traits, but he is brave. 

See, Scorpius Malfoy’s bravery lies deep within him, hidden most of the time and, still at this age, not matured to what it will be in the years to come, but it is there, masked often by an exuberant yet, sometimes shy personality, his bravery was growing to be one of, if not his biggest strength. 

With a stretch of his legs and holding of his breath, feet and toes find their way to the plush carpet below his bed and curl against the comforting, familiar fabric there. “Just at home … I’m home … in my room … in my home.” 

And his home is safe, but for now at least, he feels the need to leave his room. Despite his young bravery there is still an unwelcome presence in here of something he’d rather escape, if only for tonight

And thankfully he knows, if he takes a few steps this way, and then a few that way, just as all young children who frequent sneaking from their rooms at night time do, he will reach his bedroom door, and soon he is standing in the hallway, his bedroom door shut tight behind him, and looking towards his parent’s room. 

Probably shouldn’t. 

He knows. 

Father won’t ….

A tense sigh, far more tense than a boy of seven should be capable of, but, some things became quite natural when you had Draco Malfoy as a father. 

He’s remembering, remembering a conversation he had overheard his parents having a while ago, after the last time he had ended up running to their bedroom in the dead of night after having a bad dream. 

“I’m not allowing it anymore.”

“Draco, please …”

“No I-”

“Draco … !”

“How will he learn?”

“He is a child, he does not have to learn what it feels like to be alone when he is frightened!” 

And silence, an opportunity for the small boy to brave a peek around the door to the drawing room where his parents were standing, his mother wearing an expression of gentle, yet, resilient determination, her brows narrowed with an emotion Scorpius was yet to understand. 

Disbelief. 

Disbelief that her husband would expect and want their darling son to be conditioned to the circumstances that destroyed his very being. And he combats that expression with his own stern glare that becomes broken by the power of his wife’s silent wisdom, yet he refuses to back down. 

“I’m not allowing it.” Sharp words dart from his mouth and as he turns to leave the room Scorpius knows it is his time to spring away. 

And so, with that memory fading from his mind, he is hesitant to run to his parents, deciding that perhaps his library is his sanctuary now, maybe that was what growing up was, finding other means of being comforted and soothed in your most difficult moments, or perhaps … not even needing comforting and soothing at all. 

But, do not forget, this boy is only a seven years old, no one, not even his father, should be expecting him to run to books and fantasy for safety when his parent’s room was mere paces away. 

As his feet begin to take him down the hall a sound from behind startles him and he glances back very quickly to see a soft light breaking from the door frame of his parent’s room and he freezes. 

Don’t be Father, don’t be Father, please, please don’t be Father. 

“Scorpius …?” The delicate voice of his mother ripples towards him and thanks to an instinct rooted in the depths of his heart his little feet quickly abandon the idea of his library and take him directly into his mother’s arms. 

“Mother …” He begins, words getting squashed between her chest and his cheek. 

“Do not worry Scorpius, it’s okay.” She did not need to know what she was comforting him for, only that he needed it, for that was what she was there for. 

For she was his mother after all, and although it may have taken a short amount of time for her son’s distressed cry to break through her own slumber, she was awoken with the same urgency as that which had jolted him from his night terror. 

“Draco …” Her instincts had reached for him, a hand reaching out towards his bare shoulder as he slept on beside her. “Draco, Draco please.” He stirred, looking back to her and needing no more than a half glance at her worried face to be fully awake himself. 

Wand in hand and spell cast the room is quickly warm with light. 

“Please, I know there is something wrong with him, do not leave him alone when he needs us, we don’t have enough time to be harsh like this Draco.” Her dark eyes plead and beg, opening closed off and abandoned parts of his heart that he wished he could refuse her access to. 

“I will not let our boy feel alone in this world Draco Malfoy. I absolutely refuse.” And he held no desire to argue with her. 

She fixes her hair as her husband does his and she heads to the door, turning with one last thing to say to her husband before she rescues their son. 

“You are a better man and a better father than you show Draco, stop trying to convince us both otherwise.” She leaves no time for him to respond, only for her words to stay in the air as she steps out and sees their tiny child awkwardly bouncing about on the landing, clearly anxiously trying to decide where to head now that he was free from the horrors that had been left behind in his room. 

Thankfully he runs to her as soon as he sees her, and with him now safe in her arms she feels at peace, just as he does, and she places a soft kiss upon the top of his head as she carries him back into her and Draco’s room. 

He is sat on the bed between both of his parent’s, Mother looking as kind and welcoming as ever, Father looking … judgemental and intimidating. But as Astoria sees her son’s eyes hold hesitation as he looks towards his father she speaks and coaxes his attention back to her. 

“Scorpius, darling, tell me, what happened.” 

“I … Uhh … Well …” The softest of hands reach out to cradle his cheek and Draco looks on at them both with a stabbing envy within. 

“Slowly Scorpius, tell me, what happened?” 

“It was … I was asleep … I was … D-Dreaming,” eyes dart to Father, even if he is wary of his judgement, he still wants to tell him as well, he still wants to receive whatever Father might offer in this situation, be it reprimand or scold, he always wanted his Father’s input. 

“And somehow … everything w-went dark, and … I couldn’t hear anything or … s-see anything but … it was like … nothing was outside b-but … everything … a-all the bad dream was h-here ….” And he points to his chest, striking pain into all three of their hearts on the same beat. 

“It’s okay Scorpius.” Astoria comforts as her hand takes his pointing finger away from his chest.

Tears begin to bubble again and he chews his bottom lip. “I- I w-was … scared.” A noise murmurs in Draco’s throat, one his family both mistake for disappointment in his son but in fact, the disappointment is for no one but himself. 

For as much as he would try to play the cold-hearted father, he did love his son, and to see the young boy in such distress translated to one singular thought in his mind. 

You’re failing. You are failing as a father.

And his brows narrow, reading as annoyance towards his son and earning him a soft shake of the head from his wife. 

“Listen to me Scorpius.” Astoria wants all of his attention, for him to ignore his father now and focus solely on her. His wide eyes look directly into hers and for that moment, all he sees is his mother.

“It is okay to be scared, it is okay to be frightened and there is nothing wrong with that. We are always here for you and we always love you, isn’t that right, Draco?” 

And now her husband has no choice, he would never wish to belittle her by disagreeing in such a situation and so offers his son a slow nod. 

“Yes, your mother is correct.” And just like that, Scorpius’ face explodes into a dazzle of smiles and bright tears, wrapping his arms tightly around his mother and letting out a soft squeak of delight. 

Because no matter what deadly horrors may creep around the near corners of our minds when we are alone, love is always stronger than those demons, and though Scorpius Malfoy may be plagued with many, and even more than he is currently aware of, the love his Mother and Father have for him, are more tenacious and powerful than any darkness in this world. 

“I love you Mother.” He whispers to her. 

“And we love you too, Scorpius.”

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!
> 
> my commissions are currently open via fiverr!
> 
> fiverr.com/mxthkn


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